Virginia Republican House Speaker Shows Integrity And Class

Republican Representative William Howell, Speaker of the Virginia House of Representatives, ruled that a Senate redistricting bill which had been added to a bill calling for minor “technical adjustments” to House districts.  Virginia Senate Republicans tacked on a 36-page floor amendment that redrew Senate lines across the state. That amendment, Howell ruled, was not germane to the original bill.

The redistricting plan, which received national attention when Virginia Republicans took advantage of the absence of a Democrat regarded as a civil rights leader, who was away attending President Obama’s inauguration. The measure likely would have passed in the House had it gone to the floor for a vote. But Speaker Howell had the power to make it go away. Had it passed the House, it would almost certainly have led to a court challenge, since the Virginia Constitution stipulates that redistricting be done the year following the decennial census.

It's a pleasure to read of an action based on a legislative official's sense of integrity. Well done, Speaker Howell!

Buying Representation

On a more local note, at last night's meeting of the Pamlico County Board of Commissioners, the commissioners voted unanimously to hire a lobbyist to represent the county in Raleigh.

Excuse me? Didn't we elect a state senator and a state representative last month to do that very job?

Oh, I forgot. The person we elected as state senator has explained on more than one occasion that he represents all the people of North Carolina, not just those who elected him to represent them. Never mind that this theory of representation seems similar to the theory held by the British Parliament in 1776. We rejected the theory at that time. Have we forgotten?

As for the person we elected to the state house, Ann Holton, chair of the county commissioners, reminded everyone that he has never been elected to any public office and is therefore very inexperienced. That's putting it kindly.

So we have to spend county money to hire a person to do the job.

We never had to do that when we were represented by Alice Underhill.

Democrats Win Vote For House Of Representatives!

That's an accurate headline. Across the nation, Democratic candidates for Congress received 54,301,095 votes while Republicans got 53,822,442.Pretty close, but a majority voted for Democrats.

However, Republicans won more seats in the House of Representatives and hold a 234-194 majority, with 7 seats undecided.

So they lost the popular vote but won the election? Even with all the voter suppression measures in Republican-dominated states? How did they do that?

Gerrymandering. Details here.

In North Carolina, the result of Republican redistricting was that while President Obama received 49% of the votes, only 31% of the seats in the Congressional delegation went to Democrats. The ratio was even worse in other states.

Why did this happen? The short answer is, the Republican blitzkrieg of 2010. They brought national funds and nationwide organization techniques to local elections.

We saw it right here in Pamlico County.

The result of the Republican takeover of the NC General Assembly was the redrawing of districts to favor Republican candidates.

This sort of thing has been going on since the dawn of the Republic, but never before has so much money and such sophisticated tools been placed in the hands of political operatives.

Who benefits?

Who pays?

Public Officials

In the summer of 2011 I posted a comment intending to put public service into context. In this case, I was writing mostly about municipal elected officials. But the same thoughts apply to County offices as well as state and higher offices. The pay may be somewhat greater than that for town officials, but the principal is the same and I thought it worth repeating:

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Let Us Now Praise Local Pols

I sometimes sit in the peanut gallery and aim (figurative) slings and arrows at local officials.

I have no personal interest in any controversies - I just want things done right. Yes, I have opinions about WHAT should be done to improve our town. My main focus, however, is HOW things are done. I try not to be influenced by personal feelings for or against individuals involved in the process.

This isn't personal - it's business. Public business.

There's another side to the story, though. We should admire all of our fellow citizens willing to step up to the plate and compete for approval of voters for the right to perform long hours of public service, steeped in controversy, often in the face of hostility, for no pay. Of all elected public officials in this land of ours, these are the ones we should most admire.

Let all incumbents know that we appreciate what they do.

For those who have already filed as candidates in November's election, I say thank you. For those still weighing whether to run for public office, I say "do it."

South Avenue Closing: Financial Folly?

It may be financial folly for the Town of Oriental to own waterfront property in fee simple instead of in trust for the public.

The Town should review North Carolina Administrative Code Title 15A, Chapter 7, Coastal Management. The Town should also review its own CAMA land use plan, adopted five years ago. Taken together, both the policy of the State of North Carolina and the plans and policy of the Town of Oriental support public access to public trust waters through dedicating access points to the public. State policy strongly and explicitly encourages use of street ends as water access points.

CAMA/SeaGrant funding to acquire water access points requires the points to be dedicated to the public in perpetuity.

CAMA grants for improvement of water access facilities that are not so dedicated must be repaid on a proportional basis if the property is ever sold. For property with a cost basis of zero, the repayment might be very high indeed.

The effect of the Town's stubborn insistence on fee simple ownership instead of public dedication may be that the Town won't be able to get CAMA/SeaGrant funds for improvements to or maintenance of Municipal-owned property that is not dedicated to public use, or that the Town may find conditions of such funds prohibit accepting them.

Has the Town Board looked into this possible consequence of actions they are about to take?

2012 Elections

Just returned from two days of training in Durham on Board of Elections matters.

We reviewed a number of matters concerning the responsibilities of county boards of elections to insure the fairness, honesty and integrity of the election process. The training emphasized the goal of increasing voter participation and of making elections voter friendly.

I'll share some of the information we received over the coming weeks.

Economic Consequences of Republicans

There was a major Republican takeover of state governments in 2010. Subsequent job losses were most severe in a handful of GOP-controlled states. North Carolina is among the states with severe job losses among government workers. The losses would not have been so severe and unemployment would have been lower, except for the legislature's override of Governor Perdue's budget veto.

That same budget attacked Pamlico County by imposing ferry tolls on our highways.

The Nation has an excellent article analyzing the economic consequences of the takeover. Well worth reading.

ALEC Target: Public Schools

ALEC doesn't like public schools. "The mission of ALEC’s Education Task Force," their web site proclaims, "is to promote excellence in the nation’s educational system, to advance reforms through parental choice, to support efficiency, accountability, and transparency in all educational institutions, and to ensure America’s youth are given the opportunity to succeed." Of course, their principal target is public school teachers and their unions.

Speaking of transparency, last year I was able to view the titles of ALEC-sponsored legislation drafted to achieve conservative goals in state legislatures. It was pretty easy to see, for example, which of the many bills pushed through North Carolina's legislature by the new Republican majority had originated in ALEC, because they used the same title. "Faithful Presidential Electors," for example, absorbed a lot of legislative attention. When was the last time you heard of a presidential elector not voting for the presidential candidate to whom he was pledged? It's pretty rare.

Anyhow, a lot of Alec's bills deal with public schools and particular the charter movement. After all, "our schools are failing and we have to do something." Today I wasn't able to find ALEC's list of bills.

Fortunately, the Center For Media And Democracy has established a web site to expose ALEC's legislative agenda: http://www.alecexposed.org
The site provides a road map to ALEC's agenda. It verifies, for example that voter ID laws came right out of ALEC's game plan. As did Wisconsin's anti labor provisions, its assault on public workers, and the rest of Governor Walker's radical agenda.

A lot of this session's bills in the North Carolina legislature likewise had nothing to do with the concerns of North Carolinians - and a lot to do with the concerns of ALEC's corporate sponsors.

National Lobbyists At NC Legislature

I have mentioned the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This innocuous-sounding organization is working assiduously to transform our form of government through changes to state laws.

It turns out that ALEC actually drafted Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law that has become so notorious in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing.

NY Time columnist Paul Krugman informs us in today's blog, Lobbyists, Guns and Money, how such things happen.

Has he been reading my blog? Probably not, but regular readers will recall that I called attention nearly a year ago to ALEC's influence on the newly-elected North Carolina state legislature here and here and here.

Apparently this legislature is interested mostly in serving their constituents at ALEC's headquarters instead of in their own districts.

DOT Ferry Toll Hearing Footnote

Tonight's DOT public hearing on ferry tolls is the second such public hearing in Pamlico County.

We almost didn't have any.

Until Town Dock intervened.

Melinda Penkava, who can be very insistent, called DOT to get an explanation as to why DOT was holding no public hearing in the county most directly affected.

"There's no place in Pamlico County large enough for a crowd of 200," she was told. "Oh, yes, there is," she replied.

So DOT, whose planners developed Pamlico County's Comprehensive Transportation Plan, including addressing public transportation requirements associated with Pamlico County Community College, apparently knew nothing about the college's Delamar Center.

What else don't they know about Pamlico County?

Thank Goodness for Melinda Penkava.

DOT Ferry Hearing March 19, 2012

Do you know what a "Senior Public Involvement Officer" is? I tried to find out this evening on the NC DOT web site, to no avail.

Why do I want to know? Mr. Jamille A. Robbins, who chaired tonight's DOT public hearing on "NCDOT Proposed Temporary Rules Changes for Ferry Tolling" is one.

I was unsuccessful in finding a job description or explanation of Mr. Robbins' title.

But he must be powerfully influential. When the last questioner of the evening asked Mr. Robbins what DOT had done to carry out the governor's direction to seek economies within the DOT budget to equal the legislature's directed $5 million in revenue and then directed the question to the four DOT "suits" in the front row, Mr. Robbins explained they (the "suits") were present only as "observers" and couldn't speak. The four remained silent as Mr. Robbins attempted to explain the difficulties in figuring such things out while disgruntled attendees headed for the exits.

It reminded me of a mobile that a colonel of my acquaintance hung over his desk. The mobile consisted of a collection of fingers pointing in various directions, shifting with the wind. It looked something like this:

What was the hearing for? "To solicit comments regarding the request to amend, adopt or repeal portions of the NC Administrative Code per the temporary rules process."

What next? "Following the hearing and comment period, the NCDOT must adopt the proposed temporary rule change." In other words, nothing said tonight will have any effect whatsoever on the rule.

After the temporary rules are adopted, then the Rules Review Commission (RRC) will review the proposed changes. The RRC can either approve or object (not reject). If the RRC objects, NCDOT can either rewrite or not rewrite. If they do not rewrite and resubmit the rule, it will not become effective.

More importantly, if the RRC approves the rule, people opposing the rule may file an action for declaratory judgment in Wake County Superior Court.

I hope someone has started drafting such an action. Several of tonight's public comments included observations pertinent to a request for declaratory judgment, including an interesting account by Jim Barton of the legislative history of NC 306.

Representatives of other affected counties, including Beaufort, Craven and Hyde counties, provided very powerful inputs to the hearing.

A number of speakers pointed out that this ferry tax was enacted by Republican state legislators. The consensus seemed strong that Republican legislators had thrown Eastern North Carolina under the bus. The entire region east of I-95 knows what has happened and from what was said, they intend to remember that in November.

Throwing Eastern North Carolina Under The Bus?

Today's article in the News and Observer about possible tolls on I-95 should be a wake-up call. Tolls for Pamlico County commuters may be just the beginning.

Is there anyone out there who thinks tolls on I-95 won't shift traffic across North Carolina further inland? Say, through Raleigh and Charlotte?

Will that be good for business in Eastern North Carolina? Not likely.

I know that I-95 is projected to become congested along its entire link by 2030. But toll booths are likely to increase, rather than alleviate, congestion.

Contributing to the problem is that both the US Department of Transportation and the North Carolina Department of transportation are really just the same old highway departments of old. They love pouring concrete and building bridges. They don't yet (and may never) address transportation as a system. The function of the system is to move goods and people from where they are to where they need to be.

Roads and highways aren't the only way to move people and goods around. Rail, for example, is much more energy efficient than trucking. Most energy efficient of all is water transport. We have lots of water here in Eastern North Carolina. Here's a plan to use it to alleviate congestion on I-95.

Let's have no tolls on any North Carolina highways.

Blame Game

When Oriental resident Greg Piner wrote Phil Berger, President Pro-Tem, NC State Senate about the ferry toll issue, Mr. Berger answered:

“Unfortunately, the financial mismanagement of our predecessors in the legislature created a staggering $2.5 billion budget deficit – the worst in state history."

Mismanagement? Has Mr. Berger noticed that, beginning in 2008 the United States suffered the greatest economic downturn since the great depression? There were a lot of reasons leading to the collapse of our financial system and the "great recession" that followed, but financial management actions of the North Carolina legislature are not among them. As any elected official well knows, but some refuse to admit for partisan reasons, financial crises cause reduced revenue and increased safety net expenditures.

Mr. Berger continues: "It [the deficit] forced us to make tough decisions to fill that hole and balance the budget – including implementing a minimal user fee to offset a small percentage of the cost of coastal ferries, which are funded by every taxpayer in North Carolina."

Not exactly. The deficit was large, but it didn't force any particular measure. Governor Perdue submitted a balanced budget to the legislature that did not include tolls for commuter ferries and did not include the massive cuts in education funding contained in the legislature's bill that the governor vetoed.

The tolls were not necessary. Nor do they contribute measurably (or perhaps even at all) to balancing the budget. The tolls, as well as massive cuts in funding for public education, resulted from decisions made under Mr. Berger's leadership. They represent his priorities and those of Mr. Tillman in the House.

Water, Water Everywhere

Once again at last night's county commissioner meeting, one of the commissioners bragged that NC-20, the lobbying organization funded in part by taxpayers of the 20 coastal counties, had successfully persuaded the Coastal Resources Commission not to adopt the report of the CRC science committee forecasting a sea level rise of as much as one meter (39 inches) by 2100.

She explained that adopting the report might withdraw 1.3 million acres in Eastern North Carolina from future use. She also explained that it might raise insurance rates.

My problem with that is, I am about to raise my house 36 inches. Before doing so, I would like access to the best available scientific assessment of sea level rise. That extra three inches could be crucial, if not to me personally, at least to my heirs.

Is ignorance better than knowledge? I don't think so.

If we build on 1.3 million acres that shouldn't be developed, who pays the damages when the water rises? Is NC-20 going to pick up the tab?

I don't think so. The rest of us will.

Yesterday's New York Times printed a very illuminating article about sea level rise, hurricane damage and the outer banks. Read it here.

Whenever a significant hurricane hits the banks, it makes new channels across the islands, severing roads and destroying bridges.

One sensible suggestion by scientists (who keep telling us that the outer banks aren't stable) is to replace the bridges with ferries.

It would be cheaper and more reliable.

By the way, there is no bridge to Okracoke and the tourist industry there does just fine.

YOYO's, WITTS, AND TROLLS

I've been thinking about the ongoing flap about ferry tolls.

So has Greg Piner, who has done an excellent job of clarifying the issue for Representative Frank Iler of Brunswick County.

Representative Iler, from his statements, seems to be an adherent of the YOYO philosophy: "You're On Your Own."

But the central idea of public assets is that we get together as a people, take up a collection, and commonly fund the infrastructure that holds us together as a state both socially and economically. After all, as Mr. Piner points out, "We're All In This Together." So Mr. Piner seems to be a WITT.

Count me as a WITT.

I've already explained about TROLLs.

Do not ask for whom the trolls toll - they toll for us.

The Billy Goats Gruff

Yesterday I asked in passing whether ferries have trolls. I now realize some readers may not recognize the reference.

It has been about seventy years since I first read the story about the Billy Goats Gruff. Since then, I have always associated trolls with bridges. So, since our ferries play the role of bridges, I naturally wondered if they could have trolls.

Since, in the story of the Billy Goats Gruff, the troll was attempting to exact a particularly high toll (the life of a goat), I thought there might be a connection.

The story ends with the troll's demise, done in by his excessive greed.

Governor Perdue Takes On The Toll Trolls

This just in:

Perdue orders 1-year moratorium on new ferry tolls

Read the entire article on News and Observer site here.

Read more here: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown/perdue-orders-1-year-moratorium-on-new-ferry-tolls#storylink=cpy

Toll Tale Told

Some illustrations just can't be improved upon. Here is artist Laura Turgeon's take on the ferry toll issue. What more is there to say?

Do ferries have Trolls?

House Bill 200

Last week, the County Commissioners not only failed to adopt a measure to hire a lobbyist, they also failed to pass a measure authorizing the County Attorney to research issues surrounding a possible law suit by the county seeking injunctive or other relief from the tolls. The attorney explained that he would have to research a number of issues, including whether the county government has standing to bring a suit or whether only a citizen or taxpayer has standing. He would have to research court precedents for case law on point, including a review of North Carolina constitutional law.

This morning's session did not reexamine the issue of going to court.

Is a suit worth pursuing? Would there be a chance of success in a court, especially since a suit would have to be filed in Wake County Superior Court rather than in Pamlico County? I don't have a clue.  But in addition to the provision of North Carolina General Statutes that appear to prevent turning a previously toll-free highway into a toll road, there are some constitutional provisions that seem at odds with H200:

I won't post the entire bill of 343 pages. But it is interesting to look at the pertinent provisions. 


First, what was the bill about? Here is the stated purpose:

"GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2011

SESSION LAW 2011-145

HOUSE BILL 200

AN ACT to Spur the creation of private sector jobs; reorganize and reform state government; make base budget appropriations for current operations of state departments and institutions; and to enact budget related amendments.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

PART I. Introduction and Title of Act

TITLE

SECTION 1.1.  This act shall be known as the "Current Operations and Capital Improvements Appropriations Act of 2011."

INTRODUCTION

SECTION 1.2.  The appropriations made in this act are for maximum amounts necessary to provide the services and accomplish the purposes described in the budget.  Savings shall be effected where the total amounts appropriated are not required to perform these services and accomplish these purposes and, except as allowed by the State Budget Act, or this act, the savings shall revert to the appropriate fund at the end of each fiscal year."

In other words, it was presented as an appropriations bill. But here are the ferry provisions:

"Transportation/Ferry Division Tolling

SECTION 31.30.(a)  Effective April 1, 2012, G.S. 136‑82 reads as rewritten:

"§ 136‑82.  Department of Transportation to establish and maintain ferries.

The Department of Transportation is vested with authority to provide for the establishment and maintenance of ferries connecting the parts of the State highway system, whenever in its discretion the public good may so require, and to prescribe and collect such tolls therefor as may, in the discretion of the Department of Transportation, be expedient. The Board of Transportation shall establish tolls for all ferry routes, except for the Ocracoke/Hatteras Ferry and the Knotts Island Ferry.

To accomplish the purpose of this section said Department of Transportation is authorized to acquire, own, lease, charter or otherwise control all necessary vessels, boats, terminals or other facilities required for the proper operation of such ferries or to enter into contracts with persons, firms or corporations for the operation thereof and to pay therefor such reasonable sums as may in the opinion of said Department of Transportation represent the fair value of the public service rendered.

The Department of Transportation, notwithstanding any other provision of law, may operate, or contract for the operation of, concessions on the ferries and at ferry facilities to provide to passengers on the ferries food, drink, and other refreshments, personal comfort items, and souvenirs publicizing the ferry system."

SECTION 31.30.(b)  The Board of Transportation shall toll all ferry routes no later than the effective date of subsection (a) of this section but is encouraged to begin tolling on all routes before that date. In establishing tolls for ferry routes under G.S. 136‑82, as amended by this section, the Board of Transportation shall consider the needs of commuters and other frequent passengers."

The establishment of tolls for previously toll-free segments of the state highway system  is arguably not an appropriations measure, but a revenue bill.

Because the effect of the measure on citizens affects Craven, Pamlico, and Beaufort Counties, it is also arguably a local bill.

Here is what the NC Constitution has to say about revenue bills and local bills:

"ARTICLE II

LEGISLATIVE

"Sec. 23.  Revenue bills.

No law shall be enacted to raise money on the credit of the State, or to pledge the faith of the State directly or indirectly for the payment of any debt, or to impose any tax upon the people of the State, or to allow the counties, cities, or towns to do so, unless the bill for the purpose shall have been read three several times in each house of the General Assembly and passed three several readings, which readings shall have been on three different days, and shall have been agreed to by each house respectively, and unless the yeas and nays on the second and third readings of the bill shall have been entered on the journal.

"Sec. 24.  Limitations on local, private, and special legislation.

(1)        Prohibited subjects.  The General Assembly shall not enact any local, private, or special act or resolution:

(a)        Relating to health, sanitation, and the abatement of nuisances;

(b)        Changing the names of cities, towns, and townships;

(c)        Authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or discontinuing of highways, streets, or alleys;

(d)       Relating to ferries or bridges;

(e)        Relating to non-navigable streams;

(f)        Relating to cemeteries;

(g)        Relating to the pay of jurors;

(h)        Erecting new townships, or changing township lines, or establishing or changing the lines of school districts;

(i)         Remitting fines, penalties, and forfeitures, or refunding moneys legally paid into the public treasury;

(j)         Regulating labor, trade, mining, or manufacturing;

(k)        Extending the time for the levy or collection of taxes or otherwise relieving any collector of taxes from the due performance of his official duties or his sureties from liability;

(l)         Giving effect to informal wills and deeds;

(m)       Granting a divorce or securing alimony in any individual case;

(n)        Altering the name of any person, or legitimating any person not born in lawful wedlock, or restoring to the rights of citizenship any person convicted of a felony.

(2)        Repeals.  Nor shall the General Assembly enact any such local, private, or special act by the partial repeal of a general law; but the General Assembly may at any time repeal local, private, or special laws enacted by it.

(3)        Prohibited acts void.  Any local, private, or special act or resolution enacted in violation of the provisions of this Section shall be void.

(4)        General laws.  The General Assembly may enact general laws regulating the matters set out in this Section."

 As to form, it may be argued that H200 is a general law. As to the substantive effect of the ferry provisions, though, it is arguably a local bill.

The provision requiring tolls for segments of the state highway is certainly a revenue provision, not an appropriation provision, and therefore improperly included in H200.

Fodder for attorneys?

Pamlico County Ferry Lobbyist

This morning at a brief 9 o'clock meeting, Pamlico County commissioners voted 4-3 to hire an experienced local lobbyist to undo the Republican legislature's measure establishing tolls on our two commuter ferries. Both ferries are shown in DOT transportation system maps as segments of state highway 306. The tolls, possibly as high as $7 per one-way trip across the Neuse, will be a heavy burden on workers who commute to and from Havelock.

The three commissioners who voted against hiring a lobbyist expressed doubt that the measure will succeed, and frustration that it wasn't attempted by our elected legislators. Commissioner Ollison expressed the view that the tolls are "a done deal."

My view: there is a risk of failure, but the consequences of the tolls on the county's economy are substantial.

In a democracy, there are no permanent "done deals."